Happy Birthday Alma Greer via YouTube 

For Alma Greer’s 80^th birthday, the retired educator didn’t want the typical celebration.

“Scarves and perfume are nice,” Greer said. But using the event to raise funds for a project dear to her heart would make her birthday celebration even more special.

In fact, her only birthday request was that guests donate from their heart to the Charles H. Wright Museum’s Shine a Light Project funded by the Knight Arts Challenge. The effort, in partnership with the Detroit Elders Project, will illuminate Detroit’s darkest streets with video art installations featuring and highlighting the legacy of the city’s elders.

Her gesture was not only generous, but indicative of the importance of Shine a Light and the role of elders in society.

Mrs. Alma Greer is one such elder. A retired teacher, principal and 30-year veteran of the Board of Education, she made it a point to bring her elementary classes to visit the International Afro-American Museum when Dr. Charles Wright and partners first opened it in 1965.

Photo property of Alma Greer

Greer’s 80th birthday celebration raised close to $16,000! It was an amazing kick-off event for Shine a Light organized by the citizenry of Detroit. At one point in the night, Mrs. Greer presented each of her guests with a gift: a miniature LED flashlight. In unison, all attendees flashed their lights onto the glass dome of the museum’s Rotunda to reveal a sublime sight reminiscent of a star-filled galaxy.

We have already begun to identify communities without light. We will collaborate with neighborhood associations to talk with community members and collectively decide how best to light up Detroit and watch those stars among us shine their brightest.All donations help The Wright Museum match funds for the Knight’s Art Challenge grant, and this is only the beginning. The museum has commissioned distinguished filmmaker Julie Dash to create four to six large-scale video art installation programs and one mobile installation.  The large-scale video art programs will be designed to rotate between two long term-to-permanent locations in dark communities while the mobile installation will travel to various unlit communities.

With stars like Mrs. Greer, the darkness of Detroit shall soon perish.

By Jerrard Wheeler, Charles H. Wright Museum